


The Oncoming Storm

by Janatee



Series: Whouffle [4]
Category: Doctor Who
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-10
Updated: 2014-07-10
Packaged: 2018-02-08 05:48:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,045
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1928931
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Janatee/pseuds/Janatee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"'Think you can beat me?' said Clara, 'Bring it on. I bet you couldn’t find the finish line if it was three feet in front of you.'<br/>'Oh yeah? We’ll see about that,' he said."</p><p>The Doctor learns that Clara is the Maitland house Mario Kart champion, and he can’t resist a challenge.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Oncoming Storm

“You want me to do what?” cried the Doctor.

“Just look after the kids,” pleaded Clara, “Come on! You were fine with taking them to the bloody Spacey Zoomer, how’s this any different?”

“That was when I was Mr. Cool Spaceman with tickets to the universe. What am I supposed to do stuck inside a boring old house?” he said, then lowered his voice, “What if they don’t like me?”

Clara laughed, “Of course they like you. Everybody likes you!”

“I’m being serious! This isn’t just my self-esteem at stake. They’re-they’re yours, they’re a part of your life. What if they don’t think I’m cool?”

“You’re cool,” Clara said assuredly, “Bow tie, remember?” She straightened his bow tie, gave him a kiss on the cheek, and walked towards the TARDIS doors.

“You’re the ultimate nanny! How am I supposed to replace you?” he cried.

“Let’s have a practice round,” she called over her shoulder, “Eight o’clock, tomorrow. We’ll do it together, okay?”

He huffed for a moment, but he couldn’t say no.

“Okay.”

__________________

_Ding-dong!_

“Clara, your boyfriend’s here!” shouted Angie.

“Coming!” Clara said. She ran to the door and opened it. The Doctor stood before her, nervously twiddling his thumbs.

“Hello,” he said.

“Hi,” she replied, “Come in.”

“Doctor!” cried Artie. The boy tacked the Doctor, wrapping his arms around him. “Oof! Good to see you too, Artie,” the Doctor wheezed.

“Where are we going today?” asked Artie.

“Nowhere, I’m afraid,” the Doctor replied, blanching a little, “We’re going to have an adventure in today, and you have my guarantee that it’ll be just grand.”

Angie rolled her eyes.

The sight of the Maitlands Wii caught the Doctors attention.

“Ooh, it’s the motion console!” he said, rushing over, “Friends of mine had one of these. Quite rudimentary of course, but a real riot. Care to play?”

“Sure,” piped up Artie, “Let’s play Mario Kart.”

“Mario, eh? Right up my alley. Used to have the vintage Mario Party 47 on the TARDIS console. Great stuff. I must warn you, though, I am _very_ good at this sort of thing. You might want to be on a team, give yourselves a fighting chance.”

__________________

“Clara, help! What do I do?”

The Doctor floundered around the room, waving the remote in the air as if he could force his virtual bike back onto the track with sheer will.

“Press the forward button!” she called, maneuvering her own bike on the tiny screen.

“The what?”

His screen went black, and a tiny man on a cloud pulled up the bike back onto the racetrack.

“The forward button,” she said again, “Where your left thumb is.”

The Doctor transformed into a giant bullet and rocketed ahead of the other racers.

“Oho! How do you like that, Artie?” he said.

“I’m still a lap ahead of you both,” called Clara.

“That’s only because you’re cheating,” Artie retorted.  
“How is it possible to cheat? It’s a video game,” said Angie.

“She’ll find a way. Come on, Doctor, we’ve got to beat her.”

“Angie, are you with us?” asked the Doctor.

“Hey, no fair!” cried Clara.

“Yeah, like the hours of practice you have on us,” said Angie, “We’ll just give him a little help.”

“Can’t say I mind,” said the Doctor.

“Okay,” said Artie, “First, you’ve got to get better control. You pull the remote way too hard.”  
“But it’s more fun that way,” the Doctor pouted.

“Only if you have fun losing,” replied Artie.

“And,” added Angie, “If you pull it up like this,” she demonstrated with her remote, and Princess Peach did a flip on the screen, “you get a speed boost.”

“Ha-ha!” said the Doctor, and he began shaking his remote wildly.

“No, no! Not any time. Only once you go off of a ramp,” said Artie. The Doctor’s character fell off the side again, this time sinking into molten lava.

“You can’t expect me to follow your directions if you don’t explain all the rules,” he said grumpily, but he was a little gentler with the remote.

“Secret passageway to your left,” called Angie, and the Doctor promptly careened into a wall.

“Ha!” shouted Clara, “You’ll never catch me.”

The Doctor got back on the track, and hit an item block.

“Doctor! Hit the forward button again,” said Angie.

“No, no, DON’T hit the forward button,” said Clara, “It’s a bomb that makes you explode.”

“She’s lying! It targets the person in first place,” said Artie.

“Is that so?” said the Doctor, grinning. He jammed his thumb on the button a little harder than was necessary, and a few moments later, Clara’s car exploded. She recovered just in time to cross the finish line. The race was over.

“Woohoo! Angie, you were only .7 seconds behind,” said Artie, “So close to defeating the Karting Master!”

“Karting Master?” asked the Doctor.

“That’s me!” said Clara, giving a cheerful little wave.

“Yeah,” added Angie, “She beats us every time, but only because she practices when we’re at school.”

“I do not!” said Clara.

“Come on, Doctor, let’s customize you a character,” said Artie gleefully, “And we’ll get you a better vehicle to improve your chances.”

__________________

“Ooh, I want to choose the track,” said the Doctor, “Which one’s Clara worst at?”

Clara stuck her tongue out at him.

“That’s Toads Factory,” said Angie, “She always gets hit by the giant stompy things.”

“Ooh!” said the Doctor, “That sounds like fun.”

“Think you can beat me?” said Clara, “Bring it on. I bet you couldn’t find the finish line if it was three feet in front of you.”

“Oh yeah? We’ll see about that,” he said.

_3…2…1…GO!_

The racers rocketed out of their start blocks and onto the virtual track.

“Quick! Doctor! Get off the green thing,” said Angie. Clara’s character promptly got smashed by a descending block, and Artie and Angie high-fived.

“Game’s not over ‘til it’s over,” said Clara, bumping the Doctor’s racer off the side.

“Hey! That’s cheating,” said Angie.

“What happened to ‘how is it possible to cheat’?” said Clara with a smile, “As I recall _someone_ saying, it’s a video game.”

“Artie, help!” the Doctor said, “What do I do?”

“It’s a ramp. Do the speed boost,” said Angie. The Doctor jerked the remote so hard he nearly hit himself on the forehead. His little character did a flip, rushing forward when he hit the ground.

“Good job. Now avoid the little boxes,” added Artie. The Doctor leaned forward and brought the remote nearly to eye level. He weaved in and out of the obstacles, emerging safely out the other side.

“I did it!” he said.

“Press B to drift, and you’ll get another speed boost,” said Artie.

 “Quick, quick, turn right now!” Angie interrupted. The Doctor leaned into the turn, nearly falling over. A new stretch of track appeared around the corner.

“Are the green arrows good?” he asked.

“Yes!” cried the Maitland kids in union.

He followed the green arrows carefully, and executed a perfect drift.

“You’re getting it!” said Artie.

“Here’s another ramp,” said Angie.

The Doctor whipped his remote in the air again, and his character flew through the air, blasting ahead of the other riders.

“I did it!” he said.

“Turn left!” said Clara. He did, and hit a wall.

“Clara!” said the Doctor, “You little cheat.”

“I’m not cheating,” she said, “Plus, I’ve been in first the whole time.”

“You are too cheating,” he said, “And we’ll see about that.”

 “The brown stuff slows you down,” said Artie, “Hit the speed boosts.”

The Doctor had barely opened his mouth when Angie answered his question. “They’re the orange things.”

The Doctor hit them all and twisted up his controller on cue when the kids shouted “Ramp!”

He crossed the finish line, several placed behind Clara. “This is rubbish! I clearly deserve to win,” he said.

“This is only the first lap; keep going,” said Artie.

“Oh!” he cried, and quickly accelerated forward.

__________________

“On your left!” shouted Angie. The Doctor steered sharply to the left, pushing Clara into a wall. Clara hit a button, and a red turtle shell shot out of her car, knocking the Doctor’s bike over.

“What do I do? What do I do?” he cried. His character righted himself, and ran into an item block.

“Oh, I’ve go this,” he said, and pressed the button. A cartoon cloud appeared over his head. Tiny lightning bolts hit his character every few seconds.

“How do I get it off?” he said.

“If you hit her, she gets shocked. But hurry!” added Angie. The Doctor held the accelerator as hard as he could, and caught up to her right as she got smashed by the falling blocks. Just as Clara recovered from the block, she got hit with the lightning.

“Ha-ha! Who’s winning now?” he said.

“Oh you haven’t seen anything yet,” Clara said. She weaved through the pathway, and hit another item block. “Gotcha!” she cried.

Suddenly, the Doctors screen was covered in black ink. He began swerving wildly, and he dropped from 2nd to 3rd to 4th.

“I can’t see!” he said.

“Turn left!” shouted the Maitland kids.

“You’ll never make it!” shouted Clara.

“Right!” they said again in unison, “Ramp!” The Doctor moved accordingly, and the ink faded away. He’d hit an item block while covered in ink, and a tiny green shell appeared in the corner of his screen. He drifted around a corner and zoomed forward again.

“This is it; you’ve got one shot!” said Angie.

“Wait ‘til she’s in front of you, then press the button!” added Artie. The Doctor swerved back and forth, hit speed boost after speed boost, and aimed.

“Hit it!” shouted Angie.

“Not yet!” replied the Doctor. He lined up his shot carefully, and fired. The shell flew ahead and hit Clara, who wiped out right in front of the finish line. He shot past her, his placement marker changing to 1st a fraction of a second before he crossed.

_FINISH!_

The Doctor and the kids leapt to their feet, each letting out an almighty whoop. The Doctor lifted his hands in the air, flinging his controller across the room.

“Woooo! Woooo!” he shouted, barely audible over the Maitlands uproar.

“You got her, you got her!”

“We did it!”

 “Told you!”

“Hey-hey!” he said, “We did it together.” He gave Artie’s hair a ruffle, and smiled.

“First place goes to the Oncoming Storm, aided by his clever friends, Artie and Angie Maitland.”

“Oncoming Storm?” said Clara, “Nah, I prefer chin boy.”

“What’s all this ruckus?” asked Mr. Maitland as he stepped in the door, “I can hear you lot down the street.”

“Clara’s boyfriend beat her at Mario!” said Artie.

“Oho! Defeated the Master? That is quite the achievement. Hope your ego hasn’t taken too much of a hit, Clara?”

Clara waved at him from the couch, “Just wait ‘til next time.”

“Well, I must say, it’s a pleasure to meet you,” Mr. Maitland said, “Clara talks about you all the time.”

“She does?”

“Yes. Glad there’s a good man taking care of our Clara.”

“And beating her on the Wii,” added Angie with a smirk.

The Doctor smiled. “It’s my pleasure.”

“Lovely But it’s time for you two to go to bed, I’m afraid,” said Mr. Maitland.

“Awww. Well, bye!” said Artie.

“See you again,” said Angie.  They both ran up the stairs, and the Doctor linked arms with Clara.  
“Time for us to go, love?”

“I think so,” she said, “See you tomorrow!” she called to Mr. Maitland, and they stepped out the door.

__________________

“That wasn’t so bad, was it?” Clara asked.  
“Yeah,” he said, “Not every day you defeat the ‘Kart Master’.”

Clara giggled. “They can be so overdramatic,” she said, “But you beat me.”

The Doctor puffed up, “That I did.”

Clara flashed a grin. “Too bad you won’t be playing Toad’s Factory next time. No falling blocks to save you then.”

The Doctor gave her a playful shove.

“I think you’ll find me a worthy adversary.”  
“Is that so?” she said, “With or without your panel of assistants?”

“They just gave me a few hints. You’ll be eating your words this time next Saturday.”

“It’s on.”


End file.
